Butterflies Dominate Afternoon Walk

Heidi may have cutback on her outside activity today but that didn't mean she didn't get outside to wander a bit. Just after lunch all of us went outside. While I went down the hill to the mailbox the hounds didn't even move out into the field. That's different.

Stella let me know they have called a meeting ... I was to pay attention ... they had demands.

With a 3-0 unanimous and soon to be 4-0 vote, even with fantastic weather outside but only a little over 5 hours of sleep last night ... we all voted on taking a siesta. They marched to the bedroom as soon as they were inside, each to their nighttime sleeping spots and it was lights out just a little after 1pm.

As you may have noticed the story and descriptions are below the photo they are talking about. That might be different from the old blog but here it will be the norm from here on out. Why?? I like opening the post to see a picture first, before any written content.

I wasn't two steps into the field just after 4pm where I saw so many butterflies flying in groups of 3-4, that I couldn't get my camera setting adjusted fast enough. I have found over time using this camera the AF-area mode "Auto-area AF" is better for butterflies and "Single-point AF" brings the hounds into better focus. I have to manual change that setting each time.

This afternoon was so active with butterflies and hounds ... some of the hounds ended up a little less sharp due to being in "Auto-area AF". This leads me to believe the possibility of me using manual settings is not going to work with my type of photographs during a walk, where you do not know what will happen or what will show up next.

As we approached that bright orange flower I saw at least 4 butterflies having dinner. Would Sadie chase them off, trying to catch them?

No .... she trotted right by them without any of them flying away.

I am going to have to start putting up a list of butterfly and flower names on my 2nd monitor to use while I type a post or a website that could be a quick reference for their names. My memory for names like this is terrible. But if you asked me about a ballgame played 50 years ago, I can tell you what happened in a nano-second.

With all the butterflies in the field this afternoon I let the hounds roam where they wanted. I never called them once. All the photos you see of the hounds in this post show them following their noses and desires.

I could tell we had slept through a perfect afternoon. The 74° was nice, no mosquitoes and I couldn't feel any sticky humidity. Sadie and Stella were on a slow meandering stroll while Heidi was stretched out on the dog bed in the bedroom deep in sleep.

I bought that dog bed for her the day I picked her up from GABR. By the 2nd night, Sadie applied the Bloodhound Laws and took ownership. Heidi didn't mind, she moved to the bed for the last 6 years. Something gave me the idea that was where she slept in her first couple of years before I knew her.

I have to admit that I was a little surprised that Stella was moving along with us and not heading over to the woods behind the neighbor's house.

I kept waiting for it to open its wings ... but never did.

Then just as I started to walk away, it started to open them. Once it heard the beep of my auto-focus it flew away. I then stopped and turned to the beep setting to off.

Chasing butterflies was not Sadie's interest today nor did Stella want to eat anything. Sadie wanted to sniff the whole field, Stella just wanted to get the walk over as soon as possible ... it was too hot for her based on what her tongue was telling me.

This butterfly cooperated and opened it's wings about the time I took the picture.

While I continued my butterfly search along the back edge of the field, the hounds explored behind me. Those power lines run for over a 100 miles south of me and even more than a 100 miles north of me.

The butterflies seemed to be much smaller in back of the field compared to those at the start of the walk.

Stella must be in disbelief that I have not called her name or said "come here" or even "over here". She was looking to see where I was and what I was doing. With this photo zoomed in, we are pretty far apart from each other.

Sadie had already started her slow march back to me.

Stella followed her lead from a different area.

When Stella's tongue is hanging out that way she has only one thing on her mind ... get home as soon as possible.

A little after 4:15pm on a sunny day here in 'the tropics" of Southern Indiana.

You'll notice Sadie over on the left edge of the picture just starting her sprint to catch me. She never fails to do that, no matter how far back she stays. Stella would have never moved by then.

9 year old bloodhound speed ... same motion has a race horse sprinting down the homestretch.

Only she can get her ears flying ... very few other species can.

She then slows her speed to brush by my knee close enough to touch it and let me know she is back.

Sadie was in the studious mode today ... not chasing.

If I only knew their names.

I knew from my internet data spreadsheet that I was using data faster than my daily plan. Finally as I was writing this post, at 4:48pm HughesNet Gen5 let me know I was at 0 and my internet speeds would slow down.

For the first time and with my curiosity, I pulled out my $9 bill and bought 3Gigs of data. That is much cheaper than Exede Satellite service charged, plus any of that 3Gb I don't use in the next 2 days 7 hours and 14 minutes, will be carried through to the next month if I need it. My download speeds went back to the range of 45Mbps - 48Mbps. I've been very happy with my switch to HughesNet Gen5 this past April.

Once again I find myself searching for that one thing I was going to write about ... but can't remember. Honestly that really bugs me and it's most likely about the time I click the "publish" button ... I'll remember what it was.

The weather is so nice we will probably spend time back outside as the sun goes down. There will not be anymore posts tonight but there might be some new pictures from tonight on tomorrow's post.

With a total of 8 hours of sleep since midnight in two sections ... I feel good. Any of you Apple computer users playing around with the new "beta" version of their Mac OS ??

It was another fine day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.

Heidi Takes A Break

It was perfect sleeping weather with the windows open and the temps in the low 60's. What that led to was me putting on a sweatshirt for our morning walk. The old thermometer needle in the carport was barely touching 60°, so I decided the worst that could happen would be that I'd get to hot on the walk. I found out it was needed.

I didn't get a second post in yesterday, based on our afternoon activity. Heidi did nothing but this after lunch and then headed back to one of her three spots to sleep. Two field walks in back to back days takes a toll evidently -- so she changed her workout strategy yesterday, getting exercise only when she walked to a different place to sleep. Corner of living room -- couch -- Sadie's big leather chair.

Sadie checked yesterday afternoon but didn't move much further than this. She wanted to sleep and headed back inside without complaint when I said "come on". She was asleep within minutes inside.

This morning was different. As usual Sadie was off and running to track scent. All the butterflies that she saw Monday morning were not there this morning. She was strictly into deer scent this morning.

Stella was trotting along with Sadie so that was a good sign. I see I am a little confused today. I can't remember if I put the comments about the photo before/above it or below the photo I am talking about. At least today I am putting them below the photos. Sorry for any confusion.

By this time, even though we had just started our walk, I was happy I put on a sweatshirt. The cargo shorts were okay and of course with the heavy dew I was still wearing the North Face snow boots.

Here is Stella showing some early morning energy. I hope it means that her hips are feeling better. Yet, she did not want to jump in back of the FJ yesterday as I unloaded groceries.

She seemed pretty happy this morning. She always loves her breakfast and howls loud enough it would wake up neighbors if I had any nearby. Then she takes a short nap until our first walk.

While Sadie was trying to figure out all the noise a cow as making, Stella trotted up the path like she had a plan to go somewhere.

Suddenly she turned a sharp right and was going to join Sadie, heading in the direction of the field. Since I knew the cow was not in her normal area and most likely just on the other side of the fence, I decided to call the hounds back to me to prevent any possible out of control excitement. I am not sure how motivated they would be chasing a cow.

With the two magic words "over here", the both came back to the path to continue our walk.

It didn't matter to Sadie. If she has any kind of scent to track, she's happy.

Sadie and Stella took off running, getting pretty far away from me. I could tell they were scheming a plan for a possible escape before I could catch them. I had to use 200mm zoom to even get a picture of them.

The closer I got to that area, the faster they trotted north toward the woods. When I yelled "hey", Sadie stopped to think about what she was really doing ... Stella kept her pace and kept trotting away from me.

In the past I have let them take off in that direction. The last time it happened they were in the woods and out of sight before I could run that far. It took me a while to find them and a lot of calling their names. After that I knew I had to keep them from doing that.

Again, when I yelled "over here", Stella turned and headed my direction.

But not before giving me her normal grumpy look for being told to go a different direction than her nose leads her.

They gradually headed in the right direction, although very very slow.

It was Sadie this morning that didn't want to come home or inside. Normally that is Stella but today they traded places. Even in the way they came home.

At first I thought Sadie had found a butterfly or deer scat.

Following her path I realized that it was the scent of the field cat she had locked into.

While Stella walked next to me into the yard, Sadie took Stella's normal route ... just inside the north property line pole.

Sadie still did not want to come in ... that field cat scent must have been strong. She is one that I can let out on her own. She might end up pretty far away in the field but always within view from the house. Stella on the other hand would be next door in a matter of minutes.

We did do a second walk yesterday but without the camera. Stella had 25' of freedom with the retractable leash attached to her collar. Most of the time she is never much further than that from me but the leash kinda helps keeps her focused on direction.

With the food pantry re-stocked and a new 40# of dog food (every 17 days) ready for their Wednesday breakfast ... I didn't have many other places to go. With a lot of highway construction locally and now tearing apart the major intersection downtown for rebuilding it into a larger one, the Z4 will have to head south this afternoon for our drive.

Thanks for all the positive feedback by making a comment or sending me an email, about the 'new' blog. I like the change also and am happy I finally decided on a design I liked.

I wonder what the weeks ahead will bring with some fantastic weather on the August forecast and temps blow normal averages.

It's another great, sunny day here in 'the tropics' of Southern Indiana.